Chris Block

We covered all the bases, including the trade rumors surrounding the team, what could very well happen, organizational depth needs heading into the draft, who the ‘Hawks may be drafting, big seasons ahead for some Rockford IceHogs and much, much more.

I’m not sure why I’m even bothering to write another synopsis of the vicissitudes of Blackhawk hockey. According to the criminally insane, the Hawks season is officially over after getting trounced against Boston and Ottawa. The malicious maelstrom of fans voicing their discontent with the Blackhawks the last two games has reached disturbing heights.

I like to go to the ESPN NHL Hockey Scoreboard each night to see how my Fantasy players are doing. I click on the box score of all the games to keep track of all the goings on. One box I’ve never checked is the Conversation box, so on a whim I clicked it after Friday’s game. Talk about Pandora’s box!Continue reading »

If the AHL playoffs were to begin this weekend, the first round would include a matchup between the Rockford IceHogs and Grand Rapids Griffins.

Those two clubs were set to face off Friday and Saturday in a home-and-home set that will be their final two meetings in the regular season.

Rockford prevailed in a roller-coaster affair on Friday night before a crowd of 5,223 at the BMO Harris Bank Center. The IceHogs topped the Midwest Division leading Griffins 5-4 behind goals from Brad Mills, Mathieu Brisebois, Brian Connelly and two from Adam Clendening.

Friday’s game got off to a clumsy beginning with the IceHogs guilty of several icings before the first scheduled television time out. Their struggles got worse after Mathieu Brisebois bumped Colin Campbell down as the two chased a loose puck in the ‘Hogs zone and was sent off for tripping.Continue reading »

Don’t wait for the IceHogs’ leading goal scorer to be back in Rockford, at least for the time being.

Jeremy Morin was told he is up with the Blackhawks for the remainder of the season.

So, unless there is some major change in direction, don’t expect him to be back in Rockford before then, if ever.

I suppose there is a chance he’d return to Rockford in the event the IceHogs team makes the playoffs and the Blackhawks are healthy enough to the point Morin slides down the depth chart far enough. But that would also have to mean Teuvo Teravainen would play outstanding enough that the Blackhawks would no longer care about burning a year on Teravainen’s slide-eligible entry level contract – which contrary to what is being insinuated publically, they are not planning to do so at this time.

Video of Bobby Shea attacking Ty Rattie in the tunnel at Allstate Arena.
(credit to Wolfkeeper.org on YouTube for the videos)

The game also got out of hand at moments, originally stemming from Wolves’ tough guy Eric Selleck coming off the bench on a line change to engage with IceHogs’ rookie Pat Mullane, who had just been jousting with Ty Rattie.

But the “highlight” of the evening belonged to Bobby Shea. The first year pro is a defenseman on the IceHogs. He took a run at St. Louis Blues’ prospect Ty Rattie with 36 seconds to go in the middle period.

Shea led with a high elbow that struck Rattie in the head. Afterwards, as Rattie was chirping at Shea in response to that action, Shea dropped his gloves and proceeded to level Rattie with a series of unanswered punches. Its believed Rattie suffered a broken nose in that sequence – be it on the elbow or in the fight.Continue reading »

I’ve been meaning to cook up something of a weekly feature here on the site as a way of producing more regular content. Given Monday is a notable day in this site’s history, I am finally putting that into action now with “Odds and Saads.” My plan is for this to be a late-Sunday night for Monday thing.

The title really is more influenced by The Who album having a good ring to it as this is designed to be a freeform random thoughts and news kind of thing. It’ll mostly be Blackhawks focused, of course, but it will not be bound by Hawks topics.

-Wanted to thank everyone who complimented the podcasts with HockeeNight and The Committed Indian last week.

If you missed it, I was on “Live from the Five Hole” with Sam and Matt from TheCommittedIndian.com site last Friday. My segment was taped Monday night, the 10th.

You can listen to it here. I join the show about 12 minutes in and my portion is about a half hour long. It was mostly a discussion of prospects in Rockford, prospect development and the Brandon Pirri situation. Continue reading »

Brandon Pirri handles the puck in his second-to-last home game as a member of the Rockford IceHogs vs Chicago, February 21, 2014photo: Todd Reicher, courtesy of Rockford IceHogs

By Chris Block

I recall day two of the 2009 NHL Entry Draft in Montreal. Then Blackhawks general manager Dale Tallon strained to holdback his excitement when talking to media types after drafting Toronto native, Brandon Pirri with the third-to-last pick in the second round of that draft.

“Terrific skills,” were the first Tallon gave when asked about Pirri. “He’s really a good hockey player. We’re very happy that we got him there. It’s the old adage, ‘(we) can’t believe he was still there.’”

Pirri had just turned 18 two months prior and was a relatively untested commodity upon entering the draft, having stuck to the Canadian junior B level after committing to join Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the fall of 2009.

Last night I jumped on the HockeeNight PuckCast for 100 minutes of hockey talk. A lot of things were discussed. Head over to HockeeNight’s site for a list of some of it. If you don’t do so already, check them out for their unique and fun slant on Blackhawks hockey.

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You have to sign up on the Talk Shoe site in order to visit HockeeNight’s page there and download the show.